General

Spokesperson of the OAG reveals that the prosecutor who demanded money has been transferred and an investigation committee has been set up.

Spokesperson of the Office of the Attorney General revealed that bribery in the prosecutor's circle is considered serious. Recently, he has been ordered to be transferred out of the area, preparing to order a suspension from duty, and setting up a committee to investigate for 30 days. If found guilty, he will be dismissed, along with criminal charges. It was stated that last year, the court sentenced two prosecutors in Phuket to prison for bribery. Mr. Prayut Petchkhun, spokesman of the Office of the Attorney General, revealed the case of police officers from the Anti-Corruption Division (ACD) joining forces with the NACC and the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) to arrest a prosecutor in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province in his office after he demanded money from a suspect to get his case off the hook. Today, the Attorney General has ordered the urgent transfer of the aforementioned prosecutor from the area to the Labor Litigation Office in Bangkok immediately. He has also ordered the Attorney Gene ral of Region 8 to report the facts of the case to the Attorney General. In addition, a fact-finding committee has been set up to complete the investigation within 30 days. He confirmed that this matter affects the organization's image and public confidence. The Attorney General considers this an important policy. Disciplinary punishment will be a suspension from duty during the investigation. If the accused is found guilty of the charges, he will be dismissed from duty and criminal charges will be filed. When the police send the corruption case to the Attorney General, the Attorney General will file a criminal corruption case, with the highest penalty being imprisonment. Therefore, the public can be assured that no executives of the Office of the Attorney General would dare to help or support bad civil servants. The spokesman for the Attorney General also gave an example of the case of two Phuket provincial prosecutors who demanded a bribe from the private sector in exchange for not prosecuting the case in which they demanded a bribe for forest encroachment totaling 10 million baht. In that case, the Criminal Court for Corruption Cases Region 8 sentenced two former big prosecutors in Phuket to 12 and 8 years in prison, respectively, showing that the Office of the Attorney General took decisive action because it was considered a serious matter. Source: Thai News Agency